


Teen Wolf, Season 3, Episode 3, Fireflies

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e03 Fireflies, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 17:24:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16268909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 3, Episode 3, Fireflies

Open to two kids catching fireflies. Boyd corners them, but the firefly jar coming open distracts him. When he looks back, they’re gone.

The next scene has Derek and Scott talking over their phones. Scott insists they need to stick together. Derek agrees. Scott promises to meet him soon and says, “Just got to drop something off, first.”

In her room, Lydia calls to her mother she’s going to the store. Looking out at the full moon, she mutters about lunacy.

Meanwhile, Derek and Scott are running through the woods. They stop to discuss how murderously out-of-control Boyd and Cora are.

At the school, Lydia goes to the pool and finds an inflatable dummy in the water. This calms her until she notices the dead lifeguard sitting in his referee chair.

In her car, Allison has a flashback. Scott has told her what her mother was doing.

Carrying Erica’s corpse, Derek approaches.

Hoechlin and Reed both do a wonderful job with this moment.

This episode is the start of Allison’s redemption arc, but I have to wonder if Scott finally telling her the truth is what propels it. ‘The truth will set you free,’ does and doesn’t apply.

If Scott’s true alpha-ness did kick in and he bit Victoria, I don’t think either he or Victoria realised it turned her. He might remember biting her, and down the line, after he becomes an alpha, he might wonder if that bite did more than he realised, but I do believe he doesn’t know what exactly happened. She tried to kill him, and Derek saved him. He could make the reasonable but incorrect assumption Derek also/did bit(e) her during the fight.

Boyd, Erica, and Isaac did try to kill Lydia. Erica was sexually aggressive towards Allison, and Isaac did physically attack Allison in his attempts to kill Lydia.

However, until recently, Allison’s POV has been: Her family has been at unofficial war with Derek/the Hale family for a long time. Her aunt killed almost his entire family. His uncle killed her aunt. She helped kill his uncle. Her parents both made clear their disdain and cruelty towards the supernatural perfectly clear and turned on her for her refusal to buy the party line.

Biting her mother wouldn’t have been right, but she’s not so naïve that the fact she or family might be collateral damage to the war they were in could happen. She choose her side. Hunting down Erica and Boyd wasn’t done due to Lydia or a genuine belief they were a danger to others. It was done as an attack against Derek.

Why did Allison want to find the bank? What was she planning to do if/when she found Boyd and any other werewolves? Would she have broken the seal if it’d just been Derek trapped with two feral werewolves?

Now, though, she’s learned her mother legitimately trying to kill her boyfriend, a sixteen-year-old kid who, from what she (Allison) knows, has never attacked any humans. Derek saved her innocent boyfriend.

How far and deep did Gerard’s manipulations truly go?

I really hope it isn’t, but there is a possibility she had no true regret or desire to change until she found out Derek protecting Scott was the reason her mother was bitten.

In the car, Allison withdraws an arrowhead.

Again, she didn’t appear to bring any weapons inside the bank, but she did have them in her car. What was she planning to do when she found Boyd and any other werewolves?

At a campsite, Caitlin and Emily, a couple, are preparing for a romantic evening, and they’re adorable. Unfortunately, this adorableness is put to an end by bugs freaking Emily out so badly she runs away.

Cora soon attacks Caitlin, but Isaac appears.

I didn’t notice this until the internet wouldn’t shut up about it, but Isaac has on a scarf.

Scott and Derek appear, and as Derek and Isaac chase Cora, Scott tells Caitlin to run. I get she’s in shock, but the fact she doesn’t say anything about her girlfriend being out there is weird.

Meanwhile, Stiles goes to Lydia. He’s annoyed she didn’t call him before calling the police, and I thought this was kind of funny based on both their reactions.

I’ve read some people think Stiles was acting entitled due to his feelings for her, but if he’s entitled about anyone, it’s his dad and the people serving on the force. He would be yelling and acting like this if anyone had done what Lydia did. In his mind, he and Scott are first call, and then, they decide if his dad is to be involved.

Stiles calls Scott, and at Scott’s insistence, he examines the body to see if it was Cora and Boyd. In doing so he notices a purity ring.

Back in the woods, Derek is presented as being in denial, but he actually makes some good points. He protests they haven’t tracked Cora and Boyd near the pool, and he sensibly points out, even with werewolf speed, the two shouldn’t be able to move this fast on foot.

However, Scott says the lifeguard’s death is the group’s fault, and Derek corrects, “It’s my fault.”

No, it’s not. I can buy Derek did react like this, but they’re both wrong.

Sure, this whole mess might have been avoided if _Scott_ had just told some people what Gerard did to him and threatened to do to human Melissa in early season 2 or, at least, told Allison what her mother did soon after it happened, but Scott didn’t make the alphas kidnap werewolves, kill one of them, and prime two others to be feral. They did this to Cora and Boyd, and if anyone is killed/injured by Boyd and/or Cora during their feral states, the alphas are the ones responsible.

Scott says they need help, and Derek says, “We have Isaac, now.”

“I mean real help.”

Throwing a gauntlet down was a way of challenging someone among knights. With the look Isaac gives Scott, I half expect him to withdraw a glove, smack Scott across the face with it, and let it daintily fall to the ground. Alternatively, since I’ve noticed the scarf, either pistol whip or strangle him with it.

Derek says they’ll catch them, and Isaac asks if the plan is to hold them down until the sun comes up.

In response, Derek says maybe it’d be easier to kill them.

Okay, I promise, I’ll try to keep my ranting to a minimum, because, sometimes, I annoy even myself when I keep harping on a particular action I think should be taken/not taken, but: I don’t know why this is never suggested. I have a feeling it falls under stupid writing rather than deliberate narrative bias via Scott.

Knock the two out. Get a taser/stun gun, some non-lethal wolfs bane bullets, dip an arrow in non-lethal wolfs bane, use a regular gun/arrow, and knock the two out. Either chain them up somewhere until morning, or just make sure everyone’s out of sight, and if necessary, keep knocking them out until sunrise/they show signs of not being feral.

Isaac asks Scott what other options they have.

See above.

Scott repeats they get actual help. Derek asks who, and Scott answers: A werewolf hunter.

I would have been much less irritated if, at least, Chris had suggested knocking them out, and for whatever reason, he was shot down.

Elsewhere, in the woods, Sheriff S is with a deputy the fandom reasonably assumed was a new arrival to the police force. Her name is Tara Graeme, but this won’t be revealed until a much later episode, wherein, I will have an even longer rant than I have probably ever had on the subject of her.

Most people who get into a show have one episode/character/plot point they will always be incredibly salty over. For me, in TW, it’s what was done with Deputy Graeme here.

They’re talking to Caitlin, and Deputy Graeme asks if Caitlin and Emily were drinking.

Caitlyn admits they split a tab of X, and Sheriff S is convinced she hallucinated everything. They tell her they’re going to take her to the hospital to find out exactly what she took.

I just really hope they won’t press charges against her later. In real life, there have been people who have died of overdoses/bad reactions, because, they were too scared of what would happen if they sought medical help.

As Caitlyn is taken away, Sheriff S tells Tara they need to put an APB out on Emily and supposed the werewolf girl. He declares Caitlyn saw something. Deputy Graeme corrects, “You mean ‘someone’.”

He doesn’t answer.

Elsewhere, Chris has done some shopping, and he drops the one bag containing the eggs.

Dude, we’ve all been there. Even the people who hate eggs or otherwise have good reason to never buy them have been there at some point in their lives.

Whirling around, he points his gun at Scott.

Right, a grown man points his gun at a teenager in a public place.

With how stupid parts of this episode and entire season is, I don’t know if this unreliable narration or an accurate reflection of Chris’s not-so-healthy mental state at the moment.

Either way, for all she’s a horrible, indefensible person, Kate didn’t have any true hypocrisy to her.

Remember when you were snippy about her having a weapon out in public, Chris? Remember how she had actually just been attacked, and therefore, did have a good reason to keep said weapon out?

Nearby, Derek and Isaac are watching in a car. They both agree this is unlikely to work. Isaac starts to ask something about Cora, but at Derek’s look, he decides never is a good time to ask.

I could have missed something, but I didn’t get the vibe at all Isaac was showing any potential romantic interest in her. I assumed he was more interested in what Derek knew and what Derek’s future plans were.

Back over to Scott and Chris, Chris is still holding a gun on a teenager in a public setting. He makes it clear he couldn’t care less about Derek’s family or Boyd.

Upon declaring he doesn’t even know Boyd’s last name, Scott informs him Boyd is his surname. Chris asks what his first name is. The answer’s Vernon.

“And just curious: Is there a reason the gun’s still pointed at me?”

Chris answers there’s probably still some part of him wanting to shoot Scott.

“I get that,” is Scott’s interesting response.

Finally putting the gun away, Chris absolutely refuses to help.

Changing tactics, Scott asks if he could have a ride, and whether this is in-character or not for either of them, Chris agrees.

As Scott gets in, there’s an extra with a basket nearby. Good thing they weren’t around when the teenage boy had a gun pointed at him by a grown man.

Derek follows.

Scott has Chris stop at the school. The lifeguard is being loaded up into an ambulance, and his parents are shown crying over his body. Thanking Chris for the ride, Scott starts to get out, and Chris’s hand shoots out to restrain him.

For all I usually dislike Scott’s manipulative tactics, in this instance, I will say: Well played, Scott.

In the woods, Chris gives the werewolves training advice they should already know. Part of this is how they should use smell to track Cora and Boyd.

Elsewhere, Allison is doing almost everything he’s telling them. She cuts herself to lure Boyd and Cora to her, she sets a trap, and she uses night-vision googles.

Interestingly, I think she cuts herself with a Chinese ring dagger.

After shedding werewolf blood for the cause of wrathful vengeance, she’s re-categorising what they will be used for by shedding her own blood with them as an affirmation of both her willingness to do what is right and to pay for past mistakes.

Part of this is about redemption, but simply labelling this as a redemptive arc misses something.

This is why I hope the show didn’t intend for Allison’s change to only be due to Gerard betraying her and Scott revealing he might have been dead if her mother hadn’t been bitten. It’s why, if they didn’t, I wish they’d done some things a little differently:

Allison has always been devoted to justice, and she has always been on a quest for self-betterment. She searched for something she was good at, that she could be proud of, something that would matter. When her empathetic personality and her strong moral code discovered she could use her intelligence and athletic body to help people, she found it. Her fingers bled, the people she loved more than anyone tried to break her, and there were times she shed tears in despair, but she stayed the course.

She stayed the course until, like many older and wiser than her have done, she managed to get helplessly, almost hopelessly, lost.

Now, she’s back, and she’s sadder and wiser. Now, she’s back, and she’s thrilled to have another chance to be the person she always knew she could be and do the things she knew could do. Now, she’s back, and not only is she wiser, her moral code is stronger than ever and her empathetic side is even more sensitive.

She’ll still shed tears, she’ll still face challenges she feels helpless to handle, and she’ll still make mistakes.

She knows all this, and just as it didn’t stop her then, it won’t now.

Right now, her primary concern is protecting both the innocent werewolves who are more lost than she ever was and the lives of other humans more ignorant and innocent than she ever was, and so, she willingly sheds her own blood.

Long before she changed her family’s motto, she found herself following it.

Other than all this, this scene really is awesome. Allison is human, she’s underage, and here she is out at night all by herself. All she has to rely on is her tools, her intelligence and skills, and herself. And best of all, these are all she needs, and she knows this.

Back to the werewolves plus hunter, Chris reminds them Cora and Boyd have a human side and will do things to mask their scent and survive.

There’s another scene of Allison tracking.

Next, the werewolves plus Chris have a slow-mo walk. Chris asks about Cora, and it sounds like Derek says it’s been nine years since he saw Cora, but apparently, what he actually says is, “Not in years.”

They decide to trap Cora and Boyd in the boiler room until sunrise.

Oh, for God’s sake, the frelling boiler room. I ranted enough about it in Night School.

Naturally, there’s a car shown in the school parking lot, and of course, it’s shown to be Jennifer’s. She’s grading in her classroom.

Meanwhile, Chris gives them mobile emitters to use to force the two towards the school.

Just knock them out in the middle of the forests, you morons.

Everyone dramatically places them around the woods/town.

Meanwhile, Lydia and Stiles are in her room. They bicker. She admits she didn’t make the conscious decision to go to school, and they both realise, the last time something like this happened, Peter was to blame.

Speaking of Peter, he finds Derek. Though he won’t die to protect Cora or Boyd, his thoughts are it would be better to just let them kill some homeless people and/or drunks stumbling out of a bar rather than risking killing them or being killed. He argues he and Derek both live in shades of grey, unlike Scott.

I don’t agree with letting them potentially kill anyone, but he’s definitely right about their morality vs Scott’s.

Seeing this argument isn’t working, he turns on the mobile emitter. Whatever he feels towards his niece, she isn’t an alpha, and as he explains, even if Derek does kill them, Derek can make more werewolves for their pack.

At the hospital, Melissa is wearing different scrubs than the two she wore in the premiere. Showing Stiles the dead lifeguard, she explains he was both strangled and had his head bashed in. Stiles uses this to rule about the two werewolves.

Then, looking over at a sheet-covered body, she says there’s one other victim.

Over at the school, Chris and Scott have a moment where they discuss fireflies. Chris says it’s unusual for bioluminescent ones to be in California.

Everyone arrives at the school, and Jennifer’s car is clearly visible, yet, no pays any attention to it. Boyd and Cora go over the roof instead of in the school.

Back at the hospital, Melissa show Heather’s corpse to Stiles, and O’Brien does great with Stiles’s intense but restrained grief. Realising he knew the girl, Melissa tries to comfort him before saying they need to call Sheriff S since Stiles is a witness.

There’s the question: Wouldn’t Sheriff S have already been called, especially with the APB out on her?

I’m going with: Stiles finding out in this way was due to his dad deciding he’d wait until he was off work, and then, getting Stiles settled before trying to gently break the news. He just didn’t think to tell Melissa about Stiles being one of the last ones to see Heather alive.

Looking over at the lifeguard, Stiles remembers the purity ring. He has a flashback to Heather telling him she didn’t want to be a virgin. He asks if any more bodies or missing people have come through. She tells him about Caitlyn coming in and Emily being missing, and he insists he has to talk to Caitlyn.

At the school, Chris is going to go try to drive the two inside, but Isaac volunteers. Before he can do anything, however, there’s a shot of Allison awesomely standing on top of a bus.

For all I love this for showing the true beginnings of her protective huntress side where she shoots at them with flashbang arrows, not to hurt them, not out of sadism, but merely to force them inside, both for their protection and the protection of others, I’m actually advocating she put more arrows into Boyd and into Cora until they both lose consciousness.

They go in, and after barring the door, Isaac looks up at her with googly eyes.

When it first happened, I hated the Allison/Isaac ship, and right up until it happened, I kept clinging to a hope it wouldn’t, but now, I’m going to approach it from a meta perspective. I don’t know whether this will change my feelings or not, but there’s a chance it might.

Seeing him looking at her, Allison skedaddles.

In the school, Boyd and Cora are trapped in the boiler room instead of Chris actually using the stun gun/tazer he’s shown to have.

Continuing with the stupid writing, Scott realises he hears three heartbeats, and it’s shown Jennifer is in a storage room connected to the boiler room.

If someone can make this episode not come across as largely stupid using meta, they’re a freaking genius. The only possible thing I can come up with it is: Either Chris is on another bathroom break, or he's waiting in the car while Scott and Alec are taking one, and Scott just made a large chunk of everything about how Boyd and Cora were taken down and how Derek and Jennifer first met. Even with this, having bathroom/snack/put in gas breaks constantly separating Chris from them can only be used so many times before it gets ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Stiles and Melissa talk to Caitlin. She reveals tonight was going to be Emily’s first time. She begs them to tell her Emily will be safely found, and as much as Stiles would like to, he knows she won’t.

On the positive side, this episode is a great look at how genuinely awesome the show often is about matters of sexuality. Emily was a virgin. Caitlin isn’t, and she was taken before she became a non-virgin by being with her girlfriend (if that sounds awkward, sorry, but I hate how the word ‘lose’ is used in regards to virginity).

However, despite being taken before she could be with her girlfriend, she wasn’t taken due to being a lesbian. Heather was presumably straight, and absolutely nothing’s said about the lifeguard’s sexual orientation.

Just like with Danny, no one treats Caitlin differently.

Sheriff S and Deputy Graeme were professional in talking to her. They wanted to find the missing, possibly sick woman with no thought towards her being lesbian/bisexual, but they correctly realised her girlfriend had nothing to do with her disappearance. Caitlin’s sexuality didn’t make her suspicious to them.

Melissa and Stiles are both sympathetic to Caitlin. Her girlfriend is missing, and this is a horrible thing for her to suffer through. Melissa gives all indication of being heterosexual, and at this point, Stiles identifies as such, but neither of them show any sign of not being able to understand her grief and worry, and any discomfort about being around her is solely due to being unable to do more to help her, not due to being afraid of icky queer cooties.

In addition to all this, there are jokes about virginity in later episodes, but none of them have anything to with the lifeguard. He was a he, he was a virgin, and there’s no ‘ha, a real man wouldn’t be’.

Back at the school, Derek orders Scott to close the door behind him (Derek) and keep it shut.

Gee, if only someone had knocked out/incapacitated the two dangerous werewolves.

Scott protests Derek will either kill them or be killed. Derek answers this is why he’s going in alone.

In the storage-slash-boiler room, the werewolves start to approach Jennifer. When Derek tackles them away, she shuts herself in the storage room.

For all my problems with Jennifer, I’ll never condemn her for this.

Keeping a tight hold on both Cora and Boyd, Derek allows them rip him to shreds as he puts all his effort into keeping his hold on them.

Meanwhile, Isaac calls out to Scott the sun is coming up. Hearing him, Scott immediately goes into the room, and seeing this, Isaac realises Derek must have gone in. He rushes after Scott.

They go down to find Derek torn to shreds but still conscious. The other two are unconscious.

Now, for dealing with the teacher, here are the options:

They could send Isaac. It doesn’t seem if he’s in any of her classes, but he is a student, and he probably wouldn’t do anything to scare her further.

They could send Chris. He’s likely dealt with scared civilians in the past and can lie his daughter is completely ignorant of the kind of stuff that went down. Personally, this seems like the best option to me.

They could send Scott. She knows him, he’d be gentle, and a familiar face might help her cope.

They could just leave her alone and let her figure out for herself it’s safe to come out. This might not be particularly kind, but it would keep all of them safe.

Alternatively, they could send the blood-covered, scowl-y guy who she might soon find out was suspected of killing his family and who has been seen around town with a kid whose dad was mysteriously murdered, an epileptic teenage girl who’s gone missing, and another teenager who’s also gone missing.

For reasons, they decide to go with the last option.

Going in, Derek extends his hand. There’s cheesy music, and Jennifer daintily places her hand in his.

At the hospital, Stiles explains to Scott that Boyd and Cora didn’t kill anyone. Intercut with his talking are his dad and Deputy Graeme finding Emily’s body. He explains someone is performing human sacrifices on virgins.

Fin.


End file.
